Writing Curriculum Intent:

At Corby Primary Academy we believe that writing should be both inspiring yet challenging in enabling our pupils to become motivated and adept writers across a range of purposes and audiences. By the end of primary school, we intend for our children to have developed a love of writing and be able to express their thoughts and ideas clearly and creatively. Using the aims and objectives of the National Curriculum, we ensure the learning is meaningful and progressive. We intend to create writers who will learn how writing requires 'crafting' through a constant process of re-reading, revising, editing and improving and enable pupils to be able to confidently use the essential skills of grammar, punctuation and spelling.

Nurture: Children are nurtured through writing by being given the opportunities to collaborate and work together, communicating their ideas and exploring ways of challenging themselves and each other. Children gain independence by planning, writing and editing their own work.

Curiosity: We encourage curiosity in our children by making their writing learning experiences enjoyable and exciting, and encouraging all children to develop their creativity through their writing.

Diversity: Writing sessions are to expose the children to a wide range of texts: fiction, non-fiction and poetry. Texts are matched to the diverse needs of the class. Throughout writing lessons children are taught to value and respect all ideas and viewpoints; helping them to become articulate communicators.

Ambition: Each year, writing builds upon the knowledge learnt in previous years. Children are exposed to high-level texts and are given opportunities to challenge themselves and embrace their mistakes.

Implementation

Our writing curriculum is organised into units consisting of high-quality text-based units and short film units. We ensure the curriculum engages, inspires and motivates the children by following the progressive steps of the National Curriculum. We passionately believe that reading and writing are inextricably linked and this will encourage children to become both imaginative and ambitious in their writing.

Long, medium, and short-term planning ensure that a variety of genres are progressively taught and built upon throughout the year and across the school. Children will have opportunities to plan, draft and edit their own writing to improve their overall quality and be able to address next steps in learning. They will see themselves as successful writers. Opportunities are built in to transfer this knowledge to other subject areas across the curriculum.

Woven through is the discrete teaching of Spelling, Grammar and Punctuation skills which are also integrated into our writing lessons.

Handwriting

At Corby Primary Academy we use the Kinetic Letters programme to teacher handwriting.  For me information please click here and see the plans below.

Impact

Pupils will make at least good progress from their individual starting points. They will be equipped with a strong command of the written word and acquire a wide vocabulary, an understanding of grammar and knowledge of linguistic conventions for writing.  Children become confident writers and will write clearly, accurately and coherently, adapting their language and style in and for a range of contexts, purposes and audiences. Pupils understand how to edit their work to ensure that they can adapt their writing and improve it. Assessment is an integral part of the teaching and learning process at Corby Primary Academy, and we link it clearly to the children’s next steps. This is done through the use of assessment grids (linked to the National Curriculum statements) and constructive marking with ‘next steps’ identified.